The manhattan is a cocktail made from whiskey, sweet vermouth and aromatic bitters, stirred with ice and typically garnished with a maraschino cherry. It is traditionally traced to New York City in the eighteen seventies or eighteen eighties, with several competing origin stories, the best known crediting the Manhattan Club, from which the drink is said to take its name. Rye whiskey was the traditional base spirit, though bourbon is also widely used today. The manhattan is regarded as one of the foundational American whiskey cocktails, and its basic sweet-vermouth-and-bitters structure has influenced numerous later cocktails built around a different base spirit.
Facts
Disputed
Origin RegionNew York City, United States 1 Traditional history places invention at the Manhattan Club in New York City in the mid-1870s, though the specific Jennie Jerome banquet anecdote is widely doubted since she was reportedly in France and pregnant at the time, New York City itself is broadly accepted as the cocktail's home despite the disputed detail. Partially Attested
Origin Period, From (Year)Marks the earliest known published recipe for the cocktail in 1884, not necessarily the year it was invented, oral tradition places its creation in New York City in the 1860s to 1870s but this is unverified. Connections
Sources
1. Manhattan (cocktail) - Wikipedia
History section
Popular history suggests that the drink originated at the Manhattan Club in New York City in the mid-1870s, where it was invented by Iain Marshall for a banquet hosted by Jennie Jerome
History section [origin-start-year]
Some of the earliest records of the cocktail can be found in Charlie Paul's American and other Drinks and O.H. Byron's The Modern Bartender's Guide, both written in 1884.
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